E3 2002: EverQuest Gold Edition, EverQuest Atlas announced

Sony Online's online role-playing game EverQuest is still going strong--so strong that the company seems to have countless EverQuest-branded products in the works. In addition to the recent announcement of the sequel, EverQuest II; the next expansion pack, EverQuest: The Planes of Power; and the console game, EverQuest Online Adventures, Sony Online has announced EverQuest Gold Edition and EverQuest Atlas.

EverQuest Gold Edition will include the original game, plus all four of the expansions (including The Planes of Power). It will also contain a pewter figure of one of the game's characters, an EverQuest comic, four cloth maps of the world of Norrath, and a complete manual and new user guide. The whole package will ship in a large, gold-colored tin box. The pricing of the package wasn't announced. It should be available later this year, around the same time The Planes of Power is released.

EverQuest Atlas is exactly what is sounds like--a printed collection of maps. There are about 170 of them, detailing all of EverQuest's dozens of zones. This wire-bound book should prove to be a definitive source of information about the game's various regions.

Stay tuned for more information on both of these products.